Pelosi May Save E-Verify

Cross-posted from Faultline USA

E-Verify expires today unless . . . The U.S. Border Patrol believes that Nancy Pelosi may be our last best chance to save the E-Verify program. You can take about 3 minutes to help save E-Verify today.

Dear Friend of Border Control:

Please click here to go to our website to send an instant email to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  I know she many not be your favorite person in Congress, but, right now, she is our last best chance to save the E-Verify program which is set to expire in just a couple of days.

Speaker Pelosi has long been a supporter of the Basic Pilot program that has verified eligible hires for the past ten years.  And, obviously, she is in a position to put E-verify back into the Omnibus bill or even pass emergency legislation to extend the Basic Pilot in order to keep it alive.

Thaks for your help.

Sincerely,

Edward I. Nelson

Chairman

U.S. Border Control

Let's flood Pelosi with this prewritten E-mail today!

Now Sign the Petition to Reinstate E-Verify

See copy of the letter to Pelosi below:

Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House

Re: Save E-Verify (Basic Pilot)

Dear Madam Speaker Pelosi:

I appeal to you on behalf of American workers. Nationwide, 7.6 percent of the labor force-11.6 million workers-is unemployed, and millions more are involuntarily working part-time or have given up hope of finding a job.

Estimates of the number of jobs that might be created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Recovery Act) vary widely. While no one can predict exactly how many jobs will be created, we believe that the American people deserve to know that their tax dollars are being used to create jobs for legal workers.

While the House version of the Recovery Act included two E-Verify-related measures to ensure American jobs would be protected, the Senate failed to include similar language.

I urge you to protect taxpayers and legal workers by including these critical jobs protection provisions in any future economic recovery legislation.

The House version of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, H.R. 1105, included a short-term extension of the E-Verify program through the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2009). While a short-term extension is a step in the right direction, it is difficult for business to plan and effectively utilize the program without its secure future.

According to recent analysis, as many as 300,000 illegal aliens could receive jobs funded by the recovery program because these provisions were not included in the final version of the Recovery Act. If these provisions do not become law, not only will the important E-Verify program be in danger of expiring on March 6, 2009, but it may mean that hundreds of thousands of potential jobs for American workers will be compromised.

The E-Verify program enjoys a success rate of 99.6%, meaning that 99.6% of those legal workers checked by the program are verified through E-Verify without receiving a tentative non-confirmation (TNC) or having to take any type of corrective action.

Testifying in June, Rep. Heath Shuler said, "E-Verify is handling at least one in eight new hires already. Based on recent load testing, the system has the capacity to handle 240 million queries a year - that's four times the number of people in the United States who are usually hired in a given year." The E-Verify program is reliable, easy to use and, most importantly, expedient.

Employers who break the law by hiring illegal immigrants create unfair competition in the labor market and depress wages for all workers.

The Center for Immigration Studies has found that the current level of immigration has reduced the wages of the average native-born worker in a low-skilled occupation by 12% a year, or almost $2,000.

Alexander Aleinikoff, a former Clinton Administration INS official, Dean of Georgetown Law School and co-chair of the Immigration Policy Review Team for the Presidential Transition of Barack Obama, calls it a "myth" that "there is little or no competition between undocumented workers and American workers . . . ."

According to estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, roughly 7.7 million illegal immigrants are employed in the United States in 2008. These are all jobs that currently unemployed United States workers-both citizens and legal immigrants-could and should have a chance to fill.

If the E-Verify program is not reauthorized, this Congress and our President will spend more than $1 trillion of taxpayer money to possibly provide jobs for illegal workers.

Please do everything within your power to protect legal workers by ensuring that the E-Verify program is reauthorized long-term in the Omnibus Appropriations Act.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

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